Volkswagen is keeping its word on electric mobility, bringing the e-Up! electric car to the United Kingdom this month at a competitive starting price. Unveiled with the e-Golf at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, the e-Up! small hatchback is priced at 24,250 British pounds in the UK and sells for 19,250 pounds after applying an available 5,000-pound government grant (that translates to a starting price of about $39,528 US dollars, of $31,378 after the incentive).

The Volkswagen e-Up! was launched in Germany this autumn and precedes the larger e-Golf hatchback, which is due to roll out in 2014. In the UK, competition for the e-Up! comes from the Renault Zoe, which starts at 18,990 pounds and the Nissan Leaf, which starts at 20,990 pounds.

VW says the e-Up! can go 93 miles on a single charge. While it can get up to 81 mph, the car's the torque is pretty lightweight and it takes 12.4 seconds to go from zero to 62 mph. As for charging, you can spend nine hours on a standard household socket or an optional home-charging box is available so UK customers can fully recharge in six hours. The electric hatchback does come with built-in DC fast-charging standard that produces an 80-percent charge in 30 minutes. The e-Golf will come with a larger battery and longer driving range.

The e-Up! (like the e-Golf) comes in three driving modes: Normal, Eco and Eco+. The Eco and Eco+ modes progressively limit electric motor power and torque levels and vehicle functions to improve per-charge driving distance. The EV's regenerative braking system has five modes and also improves the range.

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'The news last week that the European Parliament wants to stop the installation of CHAdeMO Quick Charge stations by 2019 in Europe was a shock to many people. But it shouldn't be. The European Parliament is right to consider proposals to kill CHAdeMO, and whatever they decide, there's no doubt there are hard times ahead for the CHAdeMO standard in Europe. Let's consider the facts. The best-selling electric car in France during the first half of the year was the Renault Zoe. It can't use CHAdeMO. The best-selling electric car in Germany during the first half of the year was the Smart Electric Drive. It can't use CHAdeMO either. Looking at the whole of Europe, the two best-selling EVs last year were the Renault Twizy and Kangoo, and neither use CHAdeMO. What about Norway? Who cares about Norway? It's true that the Nissan LEAF, which relies on CHAdeMO chargers, was the best-selling EV in Norway last year, and Norway is geographically in Europe and is a member of European Economic Area. But Norway is not a member of the European Union, so it doesn't count here. Norwegians do not have a seat at this particular table' http://www.plugincars.com/why-chademo-death-row-europe-128001.html It is the Leaf's CHAdeMO system which is on borrowed time, not the system in the E-Up. Just as, by pure coincidence, in the US the legislature backed 16kwh for maximum tax rebate when that had been specified by GM, in Europe there is only one winner in charging standards, and that is not Nissan. It might be a different matter if sales of the Leaf and iMiEV had been stellar, so that they could use first mover advantage to make CHAdeMO the defacto standard, but in Europe they have been abysmal, far lower than in the US. So the E-Up in the UK uses the coming fast charge system for £1,740 less than the Leaf, which also uses a battery system which has not covered itself in glory at all times for longevity and good temperature performance. Hmmm.

Thinking about it a little more, if you buy a Leaf in Europe what is it going to be worth in a few years, since it has an orphaned fast charging standard, and a battery not renowned for longevity? The E-Up is £1,740 cheaper to start with, and VW engineers will have learnt from Nissan's problems with the Leaf so likely has a much more durable battery pack, together with the fast charging standard that Europe is going for. If you want the extra room in the Leaf, and buy rather than lease, it is going to cost you a packet more.

Well, it's an EV from the world's most profitable car maker. The expression "laboured mightily and brought forth a mouse." springs to mind. 4 years ago, (or even 3) an EV with this price and performance and a VW badge, would have created a sensation and gained an instant following of enthusiastic supporters. Today, the VW e-Up! seems unexciting and a bit dated. The e-Up! is outclassed by it's rivals, and is expensive in comparison to the equally spartan, iMev. This is definitely an EV that only ardent VW fans will buy.

actually up,citigo,mii are very well received as SMART city car and gaining popularity.. I'm seeing them everywhere (EU). Design wise-when you see it in person- sharp edges make it modern looking and iMev looks like toy next to them. Battery wise their use of nanotechnology and minimizing lithium plating is quite good. Maybe thats why they go one of the best battery warranty for 8 years... (nissan leaf 5 years, renault only leases) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHUR1oqZ5c

Hi Marcopolo Excellent quote from Quintus Horatius Flaccus and I can somewhat agree. But you are going to need something quite outstanding to convince people that the i-MiEV would even be considered next to the E-UP. The styling of the E-UP seems OK to me. i-MiEV sets a whole new universe of funky. In a world where the Leaf draws little love for its styling I think Volkswagen have done OK.

I'm not sure which rivals you are referring to which you feel outclass the E-Up. It isn't as roomy as the Leaf, but it is a city car just like the Leaf, so for its intended purpose for many the room is fine. I can't be arsed to compare trim levels, but the base model of each is £1,740 cheaper than the Leaf, which is a handy saving although hardly massive. I fancy VWs battery engineering over that of Nissan, so if you are buying a car with a battery that may come into the calculation. The cool maritime climate of the UK is ideal for battery performance and longevity, so that is less of a consideration than elsewhere, but reputations are hard to shake so I suspect that however unjustly the troubles of the Leaf in Arizona may hit trade in prices even in the UK. The Zoe is an excellent little car, but you can only buy it with a leased battery, so they are not directly comparable and some will not even consider a lease. It is in any case hardly streets ahead of the E-Up. The Smart has far less accomodation. The iMiEV is £23,500 after the Government grant. As for the charging, this is the standard that Europe has agreed on, and has the German car industry behind it. Its prospects in the region then are far better than the Nissan-backed standard. Here is a test drive of what sounds like a nice little car: http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/volkswagen/up/2014-vw-e-up-review/1211659 So the judgement that: 'This is definitely an EV that only ardent VW fans will buy.' seems unsupported by the facts to me. What is better, and why?

And Regardless of the hysteria about EV fires I would feel much safer driving an EV around a city than anything with a gas fuel. I would also be happier to ditch the manual, auto or DSG gearbox now matter how well they worked around town as well. My short ride in a Nissan Leaf was a revelation in that regard.

Thanks for the correction, Daryl. I had no idea that VW sold anything as small as the Up in Australia, and made a lazy assumption! In that case I would have thought that you would have an excellent chance of getting the E-Up. My comment on VW LPG cars was based on the fact that they can easily engineer them on the new platforms if they wish, and if they see that they can sell them profitably no doubt will.

Hi DaveMart As far as I know VW doesn't do any factory LPG vehicles. Australia is a small market and there would be no chance they would do one especially for it. Even though we do have an excellent LPG distribution network and there is clear potential for fuel cost savings, it is not a very popular fuel. There are some excellent locally made factory LPG vehicles available here right now. The fuel savings on a vehicle which uses a lot of fuel to start with are substantial. It's just that they are large locally made sedans which no one wants to buy anymore. And perhaps even more so, the fact that people resist changes to what they know.

Hi DaveMart Vehicles the size of the VW UP are not the most popular here but they certainly fill a percentage of the market. The regular gasoline UP which is heavily discounted has probably been a sales disappointment for VW Australia. E-UP gives them a position in the market which they don't currently have.

Marco has a lot of interesting and well informed things to say, but on this occasion I can't see his logic. There is no chance of the E-Up going to either the US or Australia, so comparisons in respect of how it would do there are moot. What will go to both is the Golf as a PHEV, which is the format VW are most interested in. The US at least will also get the E-Golf and the Audi A3 e-tron. They are going to be more expensive but should be fine options.

Hi DaveMart We have an excellent LPG distribution network here but not natural gas so those model are out of the question for now. VW Australia could bring the E-UP here if they wish and I'm sure it would be much easier than the US. We already have the regular UP. I'm hoping they do because right now the E-UP should be the cheapest entry point for a pure EV in this country. In my opinion it looks less offensive than the Nissan Leaf and I agree that they have certainly had the time to look at heat related battery issues. It's a big country for sure and I've driven a few 2000km straight trips in the last few years. But I think there is plenty of cases where an EV is suitable for our cities.

You will know far more about the Australian car market than I, but I suspect that sub-compact cars there are a small part of the market, perhaps similar to their tiny share in the US, and for the same reasons. Tiny cars make a lot of sense in very crowded cities, with streets based on pre-automobile layouts and widths. If space is not at such a premium, there is no real point in not being able to spread yourself out in a larger vehicle. VW and other manufacturers make very little money on their smallest cars, which they have to offer in Europe, and have no interest in selling them in other markets where the price they could get for them would be even more restricted. So I think there is very little chance indeed of Australia getting the E-Up, or the US for that matter unless they have to for compliance reasons. An interesting option for the US might be if VW decide to offer LPG versions of the Golf etc. They have not built one yet for the UK which also uses LPG rather than NG, but the new multi-power source capable platforms mean that they could engineer an LPG option very easily, and build it in limited quantities on the same production lines as other versions.

Hi DaveMart I tell you what. Determining the relative value (me being in Australia) when you have to compare exchange rates, country taxes, government rebates and the outright buying power of the USA. It's hard to easily make comparisons but I think Marcopolo has safely excluded himself from the ardent VW fan category.

Daryl, with around 600,000 LPG vehicles on Australian roads, then the market even using obsolete models as the platform for them must be around 60,000 a year. So if VW wanted to, by putting LPG on a decent modern platform they could own it. 60,000, or say half of it, is way more than VW expects for the whole of Europe for, say, the E-Golf or E-Up, and they have designed their platforms to be multi-fuel capable with minimal extra engineering, and economic in small production runs. So perhaps VW will decide they want to own the Australian LPG market, and release a couple of models to make it so.

Hi LTAW You didn't give enough information to allow for a proper answer. But as an example the 50kW fast charger I linked above is asking for 415V 3 phase supply 85A per phase. Sounds like your home could probably handle 6kW depending on what else you have there. Is there any EV's which have 6kW AC charging onboard?

First plugin model will always be expensive... it is not for the masses anyway. It if for early adopters. Folks willing to pay extra (and take a resell hit) for the chance to encourage the company to continue.

How's about no? I know...subsidies....VAT....exchange rates....but dollar for dollar comparison.....on a pure EV....iMev first...then the choice becomes a bit muddy, but the Up! would not be second. And, if we throw the Volt into the equation, I would be at the Chevy dealer, prior to it opening, banging on the door, waving a handful of cash screaming, 'Now take my money!'

The iMiEV is priced as a compliance car in the US and so does not have to reflect production costs. In the UK it is around £5k more expensive than the E-Up. VW badge engineering means that they have probably allowed about £500-1000 wiggle room in the price of the E-Up, to allow Skoda and Seat who have both said that they are going to produce electric city cars to go under the VW price by the usual amount. They are not realistically inferior in the petrol version of the Up, just different in some details and cheaper.

Hi Rotation I think VW have covered the charging options quite well. Which vehicles have 6kW AC charging? I imagine 6kW is a tall order especially in the USA with 110V supply. It would add a fair bit to the electrical requirement of your home, the wall charger, cable, plug and onboard charging unit. I spoke to a fellow who owns a Leaf and also manufactures 50kW fast chargers. http://veefil.com/specifications/ From what I gather he DC fast charges almost exclusively. I don't think that is a viable option to buy your own since the charger is quite expensive. But a few of them in convenient places would massively increase the usability range of electric vehicles. I think more so than increasing your charging ability at home.

Agreed. As soon as the new European prices are announced which have proven to be low in the US and Japan, it would likely cost close to the Renault Zoe. That's significant considering that the Zoe's batteries are excluded from the price and are rented for 3 years. Now, the current (outdated 2012 or 2011) models from Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn would likely cost £23,000 After Reductions. (The C-Zero on Citroen's UK site suspiciously priced at "£16,416*"). Despite that big price disadvantage, I do agree that it's a better choice than the VW. There are a few popping up cheaply as second hand and most importantly, the i-MiEV uses CHAdeMO. Vastly the main and most widespread Rapid Charger in Europe (more than 800). The e-Up! only has the odd SAE Combo and those SAE Rapid Chargers are virtually non-existent and its progress unheard of.

Remember the Sirocco and Dasher? They were pint size cars with minimum creature comfort but with over-priced . On top of that, they were not the most reliable cars and repairs were expensive. This e-VW is following the same path as the Sirocco and Dasher because the same old farts are still at VW HQ. And VW wonders why its market share has shrank in North America.

VW's market share has grown in the US over the past few years. "VW’s US sales peaked at 569,292 in 1968, then dropped precipitously for 35 years before shooting up over the last three years, doubling to 438,133 units, a trend the company is intent on maintaining. So far this year, that seems to be happening. While overall car sales are up 7.1 percent in North America, VW’s are up 12.3 percent. “Going back to 2010, we concentrated on introducing our [current] core products,” says Browning. “Now the goal is to sustain that momentum while looking to renew and expand the lineup in 2015 and beyond.” http://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2013/09/07/volkswagen-ramps-its-push-for-market-share/M7fv1ZBMQ8DnVdZUornjWL/story.html